The channel closed. The one thing Jane was now intensely curious about was how they could be so advanced, and yet seem so helpless against hunters. However, she wasn’t going to ask. It nagged at her though.
Sensors were showing a dozen ships on the ground, having each burned themselves a landing zone. They were widely spaced. Half of them were Owl ships, the rest were varied, and Jane wasn’t sure who they were.
Another ship came into orbit as she was deciding what to say. She paid more attention to traffic, and found there was in fact a number of ships inbound.
She opened a channel to all of them.
"This is Admiral Jane of the Kingdom of Hunter's Run ship Concorde. Please state your intensions here."
There was no answer.
"By not answering, I'm assuming your intention is to land on the planet and hunt the locals. Please be advised, HUNTING SEASON IS OVER!"
There was still no answer.
"Fine. If you attempt to enter the atmosphere of this planet, I will fire on you. If you continue, you will be destroyed."
"You have no jurisdiction here creature. Go back to your homeworld, or we will call down the wrath of our fleets on you."
It was predictably, an Owl.
"You don’t watch the news do you?"
"Why would you say that?"
"You have very few fleets left. You picked a fight your people cannot win."
"I pick my fights on the planet below. Stop your rambling and get out of our way."
"No. You may depart. Or you may die. Those are your only choices."
The Owl obviously didn’t think so. A missile launched from the oncoming ship. Jane picked it off with a single point defense turret.
She turned Concorde to face the still oncoming ship, locked it up, and gave it a full broadside. The ship disintegrated into small pieces, which fell into the atmosphere and burned up.
The next ship out turned suddenly, and headed back the way it had come. One by one, the others behind it did the same.
A channel opened from below, and the Bridge was filled with a million mice voices saying 'thankyou'.
Fourteen
Jane dropped the Excalibur down to just above tree level. This was the first time she'd ever flown one sitting in the seat. She'd found it far more responsive than she'd ever realized. Her very rookie like flying after dropping out of the hanger had nearly convinced her to just fly like she always did, electronically, but then, where was the fun in that? She pushed aside the memories. She concentrated on improving her flying skills.
By the time she reached the first ship, she was ready for combat. As she overflew it, she saw a collection of beings all firing slugs at her. None of them hit her, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they did.
She tagged each of the beings carrying guns as missiles. The point defense turrets opened up on them for the second it took for there to be nothing left standing. Actually, nothing recognizable left at all.
Jane opened a channel to all the ships on the ground.
"As I said in orbit, hunting season is over. If your ships lift right now, you can leave. If not, they will be destroyed. Anyone carrying a gun will die where they stand."
No answer. Jane sighed. She was beginning to wonder why she bothered.
She pulled the Excalibur up and around, and headed back towards the nearest ship. This time, someone fired a small hand held missile at her. Her point defense took care of it easily, and a second later, the being which fired it. She lined up the ship's rear and fired four sets of pulses into it. The engines exploded. Sensors detected two remaining life signs on board, so she came around again, and demolished the Bridge area. No more life signs.
Six red dots appeared on the navmap as she pulled up and headed for the next nearest ship. She popped up the info on them, and saw they were some kind of armed shuttle, similar to what she'd come up against on the Fly planet. She grinned, and pushed the speed slider to full. A target was painted on each shuttle, and as soon as she was in range, she sent an IR missile to each. Six red dots vanished, and six clouds of debris vanished into the jungle canopy.
Now Jane finally understood what Jon had loved about flying. Approaching the next ship, she lined up on its length, and hosed it with the main guns as she flew over, leaving the turrets to pick off the missiles launched at her, and the people around the ship. She missed a killing blow on the ship, so made another pass. This time it detonated quite spectacularly.
Two hours later, and the final ship had been destroyed. She looked for somewhere to land, near where an isolated hunter was moving through the jungle beneath. There wasn’t anywhere.
"Stuff it," she said to herself, and pulled the ship up for higher altitude.
Her Lightning had added several extra comnavsats into the planet's orbit, covering all the major land masses. She checked now for how many life signs she could find on the surface. There were twenty seven. She opened a channel to the mice.
"Confirm for me you have none of your people on the surface, anywhere on the planet?"
"None. If you detect any kind of technology, it belongs to a hunter."
"Fine. I hope your jungle critters like eating Owl for dinner."
"They'll eat anything if you leave it out for them."
"This will be over shortly."
"Good."
The channel closed.
Jane painted each of the twenty seven moving targets, and double checked each one. All were Owls. All were armed.
Twenty seven Mosquito missiles launched from Concorde. Jane looked on as each one hit its target.
The channel opened again.
"Where do I get me one of those?"
Jane started laughing. The whole idea of a mouse, even one as large as a cat, flying an Excalibur, was just too funny to ignore.
The original voice broke in on her.
"We welcome you to our planet. Please land at the space port."
Jane was about to ask what space port, when an area of what she thought was jungle, instead turned into a huge landing platform.
She landed, chuckling to herself, and making a note not to judge by appearances.
Upon meeting the mice, she was amazed how like little centaurs they were. The rear of their bodies were standard mouse, but the front section was at ninety degrees the same as a centaur, but with the standard three arms common to this part of the galaxy. The tallest of them stood level with her knees. Their arms reminded her a bit of the arms the fuzz-ball had.
"I seriously want one of those," said one of the mice who met her when she jumped down from the airlock. "With this, I could keep our skies clear of hunters."
Jane did some quick redesign work.
"It might be possible to rig you up a pilot's seat, and controls suitable for you. But I'd want to make sure you didn't become a warrior race bent on the destruction of all the hunter races first."
"Spoilsport," said someone Jane didn't see say it.
"Welcome," said the mouse in front of her, officially. "You are taller than we imagined. We will have to talk out here, as there is no way you will fit below."
It waved to a series of pillows being dragged towards her. Jane arranged them to look comfortable, and sat.
Smaller pillows came forth as well, and a dozen mice sat in a semicircle in front of her.
Jane idly wondered why it was always a dozen, and didn’t come up with a decent answer. There were plenty of them, but nothing Jane felt actually made any real sense.
"If you don’t mind us asking," said the apparent leader. "What exactly are you? You are not flesh and blood as we are, but you are also not robotic."
Jane was shocked.
"Are you an Artificial Intelligence?" asked the mouse to the leader's left.
Jane opened her mouth to ask how they knew.
"We have better scan and communications technology than anyone else in this end of the galaxy," said the one on the right. "With the exception of you. Yours is impressive, even by our standards."
> "We knew as soon as your ship entered orbit there were no flesh and blood lifeforms aboard. Are all your people like you?"
Jane hesitated.
"Some. Those who've entered this area of space are similar to me. But Humans, who we model our appearance on, are flesh and blood like yourselves."
"Do they know what you are?"
"No. Like other species in this galaxy, Humans share a deep suspicion of what they don’t understand. We've kept ourselves a secret until now, just to avoid any unfortunate reactions. We are recovering from a disaster, and don’t need the distractions."
"We are aware of your disaster, and the area of space you claimed."
"How?"
The mouse leader made a sound which Jane classified as a laugh.
"We routinely invade the computers of passing ships, and strip out all galactic news from them."
"We were amazed when we found we couldn’t access yours."
"But we knew you were coming."
"Don’t you have a problem with me being an AI?" asked Jane.
"No. Why should we? We judge beings on what they do, not what they are."
"And we have in fact been trying to perfect our own AI."
"Without success."
"Will you keep my secret?" asked Jane.
"Yes," they all said together.
"We owe you," said the leader. "Your secret is safe, at least until you decide to reveal it."
"What of yourselves? Does the sector know you are here?"
"No. But perhaps it is finally safe to reveal ourselves."
"Why would it be?"
"You are claiming all space between your people and the end of what they call the Gauntlet, are you not?"
"All those system not inhabited by someone else, yes."
"So we reside within your space now?"
"In a way, yes. I’d prefer to think of it as our space bends around yours."
The mice looked at each other. One by one they nodded to the leader.
"Your space. We officially request to join your Kingdom as a Duchy."
Fifteen
Walsh was getting used to standing in front of the council.
"Ambassador?" said Ganshura. "You requested time before the council, but omitted to specify why."
"I bring a request for membership before the council, relayed to me by Queen Jane."
"Another one?" said a voice from the back.
Walsh threw a vid to the wall screen projector. A mouse appeared, looking down on the assembly gravely. There were a number of expressions of surprise.
"Some of you know of us, some of you don’t. Some of you officially don’t know of us, but your people hunt us. We know who you are. Our species was transplanted here to the system Queen Jane calls HRA2 by Owls many generations ago, and we have remained as hidden as possible since then. Our hunters think they kept our numbers down, but we are in the tens of millions now. We live in technologically advanced cities, which most of you will never see simply because you are too big."
"The Kingdom of Hunter's Run today did us a great service, in ridding us once and for all, of those who hunt us. We claim this planet and system formally. We have petitioned to join the Kingdom as a Duchy. We now petition to become a member of the Sector Ten council."
It stopped to let reactions happen, but all eyes were glued to the screen.
"Our ambassador is on the way to you, courtesy of one of Queen Jane's couriers. We bring trade products and technology to offer the sector. It is our belief you will find us to be good trading partners. Our lack of physical size is made up for by enthusiasm in whatever we do."
"We await your decision, which can be passed back to us through the Kingdom's communications network, using your standard email system. Our addresses are supplied. Thank you for your time."
The vid ended, but Walsh threw another one up there before anyone could say anything. Jane looked down on the council.
"Ambassadors. I would like to add a few comments before you begin discussions of the Mice's application. I have today destroyed a number of ships on the ground, which refused to leave when I asked them to. I also was forced to kill hunters who refused to throw down their weapons. I have confirmed to my satisfaction that the Mice do indeed have technologically advanced cities, and are more advanced in the areas of miniaturization, communications, and computers, than most members of the council. They have a lot to offer, including advances in computer hardware which will enable your existing email system to more easily work with our network. They can also bring you up to a standard of computers, where our expertise in programming them will become available."
"The mice are building their own station, which my people will boost into orbit when complete. At that time, they will welcome trade with the sector. However, until some level of trust is established, they will not allow other species to land on their planet without a formal invitation. As the protector of this planet, at least for the time being, I will honour their requirements, and take action against any ship attempting to land without permission."
"I find the whole concept of hunting a sentient intelligent being repugnant."
There were a lot of nodding heads, but also a lot of troubled looks as well.
"In due course when the war with the Owls is over, we will consider the application of the Mice to join the Kingdom. If this happens, they will be protected under the Kingdom's laws. Until that time, the system is under the Kingdom's protection, and Kingdom law will apply as if the system was ours, for as long as the Mice request this from us."
"To those of you who know your people have been hunting here, I say this. Hunting season is closed. Permanently. Tell your people to get a real life, because if they come here, they will become the hunted."
"For the council as a whole, I recommend acceptance of this species onto the council. Thank you for listening."
The vid ended.
"There is a motion before the council," said Ganshura. "All will vote."
It didn’t take long.
"Motion carries. The Mice are welcomed onto this council."
Walsh threw the contact addresses for the mice leadership onto the wall.
"Thank you ambassador."
Walsh nodded. Dismissed, he headed back to his embassy office.
Sixteen
Fred viewed the vid from Jane with surprise.
He decided he needed to show it to the family first, before he could take the issue to council. The family viewed it silently. More than a few cringed at the images, but the majority expressed their support. The ones who cringed had also cringed when they saw the ambassador's vid more than a month before, so there was no real significance there. Some beings made people cringe. It was something people were going to need to start dealing with soon.
He took it to his small group of friends next. They were enthusiastic. Each took a copy of the relevant part, and sounded out their families, and other friends. They met a few hours later, and no-one had an outright no.
Fred took it to the council. The council had changed a lot. No longer representing stations and groups, it now represented systems, planets, and Gaia planet cities. In a few cases, the cities had representatives from different groups.
"I have something to put forward to you from Queen Jane. She requests your support, and any comments the council might make, while at the same time pointing out it’s a Kingdom decision, not a Human Federation decision. Still, she recognizes there are implications for the Federation."
He stopped, and looked around. Most of the room looked puzzled.
"Over the last couple of days, Queen Jane has liberated one planet from Owl control, and stopped the systematic hunting of an intelligent species on another. Both planets have partitioned to become Duchy's within the Kingdom."
"Why does it concern us?" asked the American ambassador.
"It would set the precedent of aliens joining a Human political entity, and in the fullness of time, could lead to an alien sitting on this council as a represen
tative."
Fred waved images of a Fly and a Mouse up on the wall.
The council chamber went crazy. When it became apparent the Chair wasn’t going to be able to get them to calm down, Fred raised his hands, and put them over his ears. He nodded to the Gaia twelve, and the British ambassador, and they clamped hands over ears as fast as they could. The movement was noticed, and those who understood what was coming, quickly shut up, and did the same.
The chamber quieted on its own. Fred put his hands down, but remained standing. Everyone else followed, and remained seated.
"What is the Kingdom's position on this, Baron Hunter?" asked Madame Chair.
"Technically, Queen Jane could just make the proclamation. But we are too new to being a Kingdom, and Jane is still fighting a war. She's being polite in asking any of us. The family met a while ago, and decided to support her. I had friends of mine sound out a more general opinion in the city, and the overall response has been positive. Consequently the official position of the Kingdom is this can go ahead."
Fred paused, looking around.
"This could be only the beginning too. Jane has at least three more species in the war zone she hasn’t met yet. It could remain two, but may be as many as five species might join the Kingdom as Duchy's."
"This is outrageous!" yelled someone. Fred didn’t see who.
"No, it was inevitable," said the British ambassador, who now rose. "From the moment we heard Queen Jane herself had been awarded space, and she decided to share it with the Duchy of Hunter's Run, it was inevitable the new Kingdom would swallow up some, if not all, of the alien species between the Kingdom core worlds and our space. In some ways, we are lucky its only five species, six if you count the Owls. It could have been much worse. Had we been technologically inferior, it would be a different matter. But we know Jane now. She is nothing if not compassionate, and taking species into her protection zone is completely expected of her. Giving them a political voice in her own Kingdom is also quite within expectations for her."
"But what if aliens outnumber humans?" asked the African delegate from the southern continent of Gaia Four.
A.I. Destiny 2: Queen Jane Page 7
