A.I. Destiny 5 Talisman of Tomorrow

by Timothy Ellis

  "Fitting," said Dodgers.

  Jamie sighed with pleasure, and sipped his drink.

  Forty Two

  They were intending to test the underside thrusters, before actually making an attempt to leave. If the ship lifted enough to clear the mud underneath, they'd be ready to go. If it didn't, they'd have to figure out how to get underneath the ship to fix them. Or even how to roll the ship over to bring them up high enough to clean and repair.

  Long formations of white swans had been flying overhead since dawn. A spectacular sight, with their long white necks and huge wingspan, they dominated the air over the lake, honking majestically. If the swans fought the black ducks, without using technology, the ducks would surely lose, as the difference in size and the length of their beaks, would disadvantage the ducks enormously.

  Dodgers had said previously, they rarely fought in the air, but on the ground using whatever weapons were available to them. It was only the recent advent of heli-craft, which gave the ducks an equal footing in air warfare.

  Patchet went back to his pub to get news, and stock up on supplies. He'd been in touch with Flash, to make sure they had enough on the ship to keep them going for months if need be. Jamie was uncomfortable Patchet and Dodgers were paying for everything. He swore to the others he would pay them back somehow, much to their annoyance.

  Patchet's boat had just left, when they heard explosions in the distance. It sounded like it was coming from the plain some way away from them to the north. It was the pounding of heavy guns, and exploding shells. They could see smoke and some fire, but it was at too great a distance to distinguish who was fighting who.

  Jamie boarded Patchet's Workshop, and ran to the bridge. He fired up the scanners, and zeroed in to where he thought the fight was located. The scanners were picking up the heat signals from multiple shots, and explosion sites, but it seemed to be from two positions on the plain.

  "Black ducks, and white swans. It's started," said Dodgers.

  "They're a wee bit close for comfort," said Jamie, trying to get more detail from the scanners, but they were designed to look down from space, not across the ground. "Why would the ducks and swans fight all the way out here?" asked Jamie. "There's nothing around here."

  "It's still territory," explained Dodgers.

  "Ye're all nuts."

  Dodgers nodded.

  The firing continued throughout the day and night, and changed from heavy firing, to sporadic small weapons fire, which could barely be heard, and back to heavier weapons.

  The next day, Patchet arrived back at the ship, jumped onto the shore, and ran up to meet them, panting heavily from the exertion.

  "The war's on."

  "We noticed," said Jamie.

  They stopped, and listened to the bombing.

  "Time to go," said Patchet. "The news isn't good. Ducks attacked the swans, but the assault failed, and the ducks have retreated to a fixed position. Swans are attacking it now. Reports have the reverse happening elsewhere."

  "If they come this way, we've had it," said Jamie.

  "Yes, indeed," said Dodgers.

  "Not entirely," said Patchet. "You're forgetting the topside turrets, and the anti-fighter missiles."

  Jamie and Dodgers stared at him.

  "I'd still rather be in space than hangin' around here," said Jamie. "But we can't leave Patchet in danger. Once we've off-loaded the supplies, ye should clear out, Patchet."

  "Oh, I'm coming with you," said Patchet. "You didn't think I'd let you just fly off with her."

  "I thought this was your retirement bolt-hole."

  "It is, and it still can be, but a little bit of excitement only does you good if it's every now and then. Once you've found your mates, I'll come back."

  Jamie wanted to hug Patchet, but thought twice about it.

  Quickly transferring the supplies from the boat to the ship, including Patchet's treasured possessions; fishing rods and tackle, his chair, some advanced equipment he'd installed in the boat and didn't want to leave behind, and a case of fire-water he'd been stashing away, they readied to leave.

  Patchet had planned to test the thrusters before lifting off, but the sound of the battle was getting closer. What looked like tanks, with infantry, black ducks in body armour, helmets, and machine rifles, were retreating towards them. Heli-craft were flying above the fray, bombing, shooting missiles, and fighting with other copters, trying to stop them.

  Shells started to rain down on them. The boat scored a direct hit, and blew into matchsticks, followed by an explosion as the engine and tank blew. Patchet almost seemed to have a tear in his eye. Shutting the airlock, they raced to the bridge, and took their assigned places, Jamie as pilot, and Patchet on weapons.

  Jamie raised shields, just in time to prevent a shell hitting the hull. The tanks and infantry could be seen clearly now, running and tracking towards them, some providing covering fire for the others.

  "I don know about ye, but I've had a gut full of yon war. What say we show them buggers how it's done?"

  Patchet was surprised for a moment, but let his grin loose.

  "You mean a Scot's git, an Aussie, and a duck thing, take on the combined might of the black ducks and the white swans at the same time?"

  "Aye."

  "Let's do it!"

  Forty Three

  "Oh fuck!" yelled the pilot at the rear of the duck formation of heli-copters.

  "Keep radio silence unless it's an emergency," snapped the leader.

  "It's a fucking emergency," yelled the rear duck, making the rest of the formation cringe at the volume.

  "Don't be ridiculous. The only emergency around here is for the swans we're about to bomb."

  "There's something big and bad coming at us," persevered the rear pilot.

  "Rubbish! We're the biggest and baddest thing in the air."

  "Not anymore."

  The sound of copters exploding overrode whatever the rear pilot said next.

  "What the fuck was that?" quacked the leader.

  He looked around, seeing all except the rearmost copter, falling to the ground in showers of debris. His only remaining pilot was running for his life, pursued by pulses of light. As he watched, the pilot abandoned his copter, which was hit seconds later by a pulse, and also turned into falling debris. The duck flew like he'd never flown before, and managed to make it to the ground intact, where a swan shot him with a rifle.

  The leader stared at the gigantic shape above him, and for the first time in his life, was too terrified to move. It was also the last time, as seconds later, he too turned into falling debris.

  A short way away, the same thing happened to a flight of swan heli-copters, only without the swearing. Terrified swan soldiers dodged as flaming wreckage landed around them. When they looked up, they saw lights coming in their directions from a huge object in the sky, and as they toppled forward dead, their last thoughts were a wonder of what the thing was, and how lights could be killing them.

  The duck tank commander was standing in his tank, top half of his body outside, magnifying glasses to his eyes, as he searched out the swan position he was about to assault.

  "Sir!"

  "Quiet, I'm concentrating."

  "SIR!"

  "What?"

  There was a loud noise.

  For a moment the duck tank commander wondered where he was. He felt pain around his upper middle. He looked down, and couldn't find anything below the pain. He died having no understanding of what had happened to him. He didn't know it, but the rest of his tank squadron had all died the same way, from a single missile strike to each tank.

  The swan post commander the tanks were about to assault saw the tanks vanish in a series of massive explosions. He and his troops cheered. It was the last thing they did.

  Jamie saved the duck formation which had destroyed Patchet's boat until last. They'd done several circuits of the planet, methodically hunting down every single air or ground war machine on both sides of the war, and e
very formation of troops out in the open, or in fixed positions away from civilians. They only used the top side guns, and the side anti-fighter missile launchers, often flying the ship upside down so they could fire straight down. The point defence lasers chewed through troop formations, the missile launchers hit anything bigger than a swan which was moving, and the big guns levelled the fortresses and fixed positions.

  They arrived back at the lake. A single formation of duck tanks had stopped short of the town Patchet's pub was in. Jamie found the radio frequency the commander was using, and they listened to a duck frantically trying to raise anyone to get new orders. None were forthcoming. In fact, he was unable to contact anyone at all.

  Jamie smiled at Patchet, who grinned, and opened a channel to the same radio frequency.

  "Am I glad to finally reach…" said the duck.

  "You bloody bastards blew up my boat!" yelled Patchet.

  The duck cringed. The troops around him didn't notice, as they were all looking up.

  "I'm sorry," said the duck.

  "You hear that?" bellowed Patchet. "He's sorry! Bloody bastard is sorry. Flaming duck thing is sorry he blew up my boat."

  "I'm really sorry."

  "He's really sorry," said Jamie deadpan.

  "What use is sorry?" bellowed Patchet. "How many beings have lost their homes, their families, their farms, their livelihoods, and whatever else they've lost? How many? Are you sorry for them too?"

  "Yes. I'm sorry for them too."

  "He's sorry for them too. Shouldn't we…"

  "Hell no. Someone's going to pay for my bloody boat!"

  "I'm not authorised to make payments for destroyed property. You'll…"

  "Gimmi that gun control, I'm gunna shoot the fucker."

  The duck fainted. Several troops picked him up between them, and the whole lot sprinted away from their tanks, leaving their guns behind.

  One after the other, the tanks exploded, and lights danced around the area. When the ducks looked up from where they'd thrown themselves to the ground, there was nothing left but wreckage.

  Jamie looked at Patchet, who was wearing the biggest grin Jamie had ever seen on him.

  "That was the most fun I've had in many a long year," said Patchet. "But for a bit there, I thought they'd never leave their tanks."

  "I don't get it," said Dodgers. "You fired on everyone else. Why wait with this lot until they left their equipment?"

  "Ironically," said Jamie, "this lot were the only ones not shooting at anyone, preparing to shoot at anyone, or preparing to shoot back at someone."

  Dodgers blinked a few times, and found this actually made sense.

  "Time to go then?" she asked.

  "One more thing to do."

  Jamie opened a new channel, and patched it through to all the radio channels across the world.

  "Attention please. The war between the ducks and swans is over. This is what you get when you piss off a human. Don't do it ever again. I'll be back in a year. If there is a war going on then, I'm going to take the whole bloody planet apart. Be content with what ye have. In the grand scheme of things, petty disputes over territory are meaningless. Act like civilized beings, or expect someone to come here and teach you what war is really about."

  He grinned around the bridge.

  "Oh, and to the Brotherhood scumbags selling war material to both sides, run."

  He closed the channel, and pointed the ship towards space.

  The lake receded into the distance, which they watched on a pop up screen until it was just a dot. Soon they were beyond the atmosphere, and Jamie pointed them towards the only system jump point.

  As the stars appeared, Jamie looked at Dodger's awed face, as she took in the magnificent panorama of stars in front of them. The ride up had been bumpy, and the duck also looked like space sickness might be an issue.

  Jamie unbuckled himself from the captain's chair, and went over to the duck. She was not very comfortable, as the chair wasn't made for a four legged, three armed duck shape, but for humans. He unbuckled her, and she stood up rather unsteadily. She looked an unhealthy green colour, so Jamie fetched a bucket from the rear where they'd left things after cleaning the bridge, which she took one look at, leaned over, and choked up some wads of bile into. Jamie found her some water, which she sucked down, feeling much better.

  "Welcome to space," he said.

  She smiled.

  Forty Four

  They jumped.

  All was clear on the other side, so Jamie headed in-system. This was their third jump, but so far they'd had no success with communicating with anyone using his PC. He was hoping for third time lucky.

  He had emails ready to send automatically, the moment any coms channel was found for them. He knew the Kingdom's coms network couldn't be far way, but he had no idea exactly where it started.

  Nothing.

  They headed for the next jump point, on their way to the Cat Homeworld. Jamie knew it would take forever to get there at this rate, but Patchet's Workshop, even with a series of modifications Patchet had made to the ship to 'soup' up the speed, weapons, and general systems to what he'd seen on the Seasprite, and knew from his Grandfather, would take too long for Jamie to reach anywhere civilised, as far as he was concerned.

  He waited out the journey across the system, and idly noted the only inhabited planet appear on the navmap and HUD.

  Suddenly, his PC informed him his emails had been sent. He bolted upright in his chair. It was only minutes later when he started receiving emails. He accessed them, and opened the first. It was from Jane. She acknowledged his email, congratulated him on surviving, and for getting in contact. She explained Seasprite had left the Cat Homeworld for a system at the outer reaches of Sector Eight. She described the arrangements of their escort.

  "Just tell me they're all alive," he shouted, jumping up, scaring Dodgers, and almost giving Patchet a heart attack.

  The vid of Jane reassured him the Seasprite crew were all alive and well. Although Brindle had betrayed them, and was locked up.

  Anna.

  Jane assured him specifically Anna was alive and well, and on the Seasprite on its new mission.

  Jamie flopped down into a chair, as his legs went wobbly. She was alive and well.

  Jane continued, telling him the crew had secured the Destiny Stone.

  Jamie punched his fist at the ceiling. They had it. They had the Destiny Stone.

  Dodgers and Patchet looked at him as if he was crazy.

  Jamie rapidly composed himself, and sent a reply email to Jane with his current details and whereabouts, and opened the next email, which was from Warspite. It was text only, and didn't tell him anything he wanted to know right now. The next email was Tranquil. Followed by one from Snark. Snark? Given how fast it'd come back, he must have received his wish to have a PC.

  And then, the next one was from Anna.

  He quickly excused himself from the others, and went to his bunk in the first officer's quarters. He read the email five times.

  And cried.

  Forty Five

  Jamie received emails progressively from everyone he ever cared about. Mac, Maraid, his parents, his sister Jenny, the Grand Mother, Fitzy. Even a number of friends he'd left back on the Scot's World, who'd been worrying he was dead. They were all overjoyed to hear he was alive and well, and on his way back.

  The email he received from Anna he memorised, and stored carefully in his private files.

  He and Patchet had calculated how far the ship was from the Argathea system, and how long it would take them to get there, even if they could sustain maximum speed. They also calculated how long it would take to return to the Cat Homeworld, and somehow secure a human ship to take them at top speed to follow the Seasprite and her escort. Jamie and Patchet gave up. It would take too long. And even though Snark had said Seasprite could wait for him, he couldn't allow them to put themselves at risk by waiting in some alien system, in danger, just to wait for him to get to them
.

  After his initial elation, Jamie felt defeated. He was so far away from them. He wanted to be with them to find the amulet, but it looked very unlikely he could achieve it.

  He wanted more than anything to be with Anna, and just hold her.

  Patchet and Dodgers understood, once they were brought up to speed, but weren't the types for tea and sympathy, which Jamie actually appreciated. He didn't need sympathy, he needed a cool head, and proper advice.

  They were still headed for the jump point, which would take them into the next system.

  Jamie was resigned to making his way to the Cat Homeworld, and waiting there for the Seasprite to return, or maybe, if he could swing it, meet them on their return.

  Reaching the jump point, they readied themselves, and jumped.

  On the other side, they found pirates.

  Always bloody pirates, thought Jamie briefly, before springing into action. He turned the ship away from them, and rolled her so the upper turrets could fire. A few of the lower ones were now working as well, the repair droids having worked on them as they crossed space, but not enough to be worth trying to use them.

  They had an edge in speed, but nothing like Seasprite did, and getting out of range was going to take some time. Their shields started taking hits. Also nothing like Seasprite had, they were still solid against rail gun shot, and even the odd explosive shell. But unlike Seasprite, their shields were slowly going down faster than they could recharge. The missiles being much smaller, were also not doing enough damage. They and the big guns were certainly smashing through hulls, but it was taking a lot of hits to render a ship unable to fire at them anymore.

  As the battle turned into a stern chase, limiting their gun fire to only the rear turrets, Jamie began to worry if they were going to make it or not. Dodgers caught his eye, and she looked worried as well. For all this marvellous technology she'd been shown, it was a shock to find duck like warfare going on in space as well, and this ship turning out to not be as advanced as she'd thought it to be.