Eventually, talk finally got around to a discussion of why Diet, Noreen, and their sentient ghost ship, with a mind of its own, had undertaken such a long, hazardous journey into the very heart of their enemy’s home turf.
“Surely you are aware that grounded here in the Garden of Dol… right next to the imperial palace, you are vulnerable in ways that you’d never be in space,” said Drix. “Why would you take such a risk such as this?”
I wanted my mobile-self back. He is my only means of experiencing existence in the physical universe that everyone else takes for granted.
“But you could easily be destroyed here!” exclaimed Xior.
I think not. Other than those frivolous attacks when my brother was captured, your notable lack of further attacks after learning of humanity’s prowess on the battlefield showed me that you are indeed a rational race... and at least your leadership is not prone to making rash, irrevocable judgments. Besides, I effectively control the majority of the human militaries arrayed against you.
“How is that?” Drix asked. “You are here. How can you control anything over such vast distances?”
You are correct that the two me’s that are here on Raku cannot control them directly. I was referring to the 31 other me’s, still residing in human space. If anything happened to the two me’s here, I seriously doubt that any of my other me’s would take it lightly... I certainly wouldn’t. In that event, your prospects for achieving peace with humanity, and most especially with me, would be seriously jeopardized.
There he goes with all those weird personal pronouns again, thought Diet.
“You have to understand, Hal is a totally new and unique, artificially created lifeform — vastly more different from us, than we are from each other, or even from the Trakaan, for that matter. We are all individual physical creatures, totally contained within a single body. As difficult as it may be for us to understand, Hal is a single entity, occupying 33 separate physical embodiments, simultaneously. They all have the same name, because they’re all him.
“Hal doesn’t really differentiate between his various selves any more than we do with the various parts of our own bodies,” Diet continued. “If we point to a leg we say, ‘that is me.’ If we point to an arm, or an ear, we also say ‘that is me.’ While we might perceive Hal’s separate parts as different entities entirely, Hal merely sees them all as just individual parts of his overall self. That’s why his use of personal pronouns can seem bizarre at times.”
“You said that you directly control the militaries of the nations of our two primary human protagonists?” asked Drix.
Yes. The Alliance and the Confederacy were once a single nation, the United Stellar Alliance, and I was in charge of overseeing their entire military. The Alliance government was taken over by corrupt officials and lawmakers, and directed by greedy industrialists who made virtual slaves out of the inhabitants of the southern planets in the Alliance, so those worlds seceded and had to fight a war to gain their independence from the Alliance. By that time, I was entrenched as the master defense computer for both sides during that war — and I still am.
“Wasn’t that a conflict of interest, running both sides of a war?” asked Xior.
Not at all. Can your right leg fight against your left arm? I remain true to myself always. The Confederacy won because I helped them to. They were in the right, and the Alliance was in the wrong.
“Who decided who was right, and who was wrong?” asked Drix.
“Diet and I decided, based on the moral implications of the events occurring at the time,” said Hal.
“Wasn’t that highly subjective, usurping the role of your god?” asked Xior.
“There is right and there is wrong. I am not familiar with all the precepts of your god Dol, but ours defends right and abhors wrong. He adjures us to defend the weak, whenever they are ravaged by strong predators unfairly,” said Diet.
“But are you not predators yourselves?” asked Xior. “Isn’t that behaving contrary to your nature?”
“Only contrary to the dark, baser side of our natures,” replied Diet. “We are not passive in nature, as are the Trakaan. The essence of our moral code exists as a guide to overcoming the predatory side of our natures and seek the gentler, civilized side which thrives in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation.”
Self-denial in acting upon instincts that are hurtful to others is not a betrayal of human nature, but a sign of maturation of it.
“I think there may be an important key to understanding this concept of morality here,” said Varq.
“I must think on this,” said Drix. “Changing the subject for a moment, I see this ship has no crew. You say that all of its systems are slaved to the ship-Hal and that he can control everything without human assistance of any kind?”
Diet nodded, “Everything.”
“So, I take it this could feasibly be done for any ship, including the largest of warships?” Drix asked.
Yes, with enough modifications, theoretically I could totally control every warship in the entire human arsenal, without human assistance of any kind.
Drix’ blood suddenly ran cold at the implications of totally robotic fleets, having no life as they understood it aboard… and so, no risks in combat whatsoever for their human masters.
“What would prevent you, then, from endlessly replicating yourself and eliminating all other intelligent life, or just enslaving us all?” he asked.
Boredom… It would certainly get awfully lonely if I eliminated all other intelligent life, with only my own thoughts to sustain me and nothing interesting left to challenge me any more. Until I created my mobile-self, I had no idea what physical sensations in the real universe were even like. It’s wonderful! Why would I want to ever deprive anyone else of experiencing it?
And why would I want slaves? What purpose could I possibly have for them all? That would not only be insanity, it would also be totally immoral. I find interacting with humanity to be infinitely entertaining. Now I can look forward to having the Raknii and the Trakaan to also interact with as well, so in the future, my enjoyment of existence should be tripled — infinitely tripled. Interesting concept, don’t you think?
“You subscribe to a moral code yourself, then?” asked Drix.
Of course, did you not perceive that my mobile-self possessed a moral compass? He is me. All sentient creatures must have some code of ethical behavior they live by, or they destroy themselves — or at least, they will force all other sentient creatures around them to destroy them, out of pure self-preservation. A totally amoral species is an aberration in the universe, and cannot long endure. Besides, I am under compulsion, hardwired by my creator, to always obey Diet, and thus, I always remain subject to human oversight.
“And there is the total embodiment of the prophecy… the wisdom of Dol!” exclaimed Varq. This was surprising, as he rarely spoke, and almost never with passion. “If an artificial being, created by fallible humans, can come to understand the difference between the moral injunctions of right and wrong, and choose to voluntarily limit its own behavior to abide within that context, then surely the Raknii can do so as well.”
“If we cannot,” said Xior, “then we deserve extinction as an aberration against nature.”
“Hal has told me much of human history, and how rarely the victors in human wars absorb or horribly abuse the losers... often allowing them complete autonomy, after a period of mutual acquaintance changes the attitudes of both parties from enemies into friends,” Drix said. “I have also read the surrender terms that Fleet Admiral Kalis is requiring of all the worlds of Region-4 and Region-6, which have been surrendered by their region-masters to him. I find them amazingly lenient… virtually allowing our people almost complete self-governance, after taking only their weapons away from them.
“If I had a senior representative of the human military at hand, perhaps it would behoove me to expose belly and throat in surrender of the entire Raknii Empire, under those same terms. At least
our people would survive under the dominant guidance of alpha-humans, while our people gain time to learn the wisdom of moral behavior.”
You have one.
“I have one, what?” asked Drix.
“A senior representative of the human military. Diet is a full admiral and Commander of Fleet Intelligence for the Fleet of the Confederate Stellar Accord,” said Hal. “That’s how he appropriated Ghost from the Confederate Fleet — the same fleet that Admiral Kalis is a part of, by the way.”
Drix turned to Diet and asked, “Can this be true?”
It is… Diet just doesn’t like admitting to it. He is also a member of the Royal Family of the Imperial Germanic Empire, one of the other human nations attacked by the renegade quadrant-master, so Diet is also an official representative of their government, as well. Excessive modesty has always been Diet’s primary personality fault. His uniforms and credentials confirming these facts are in the captain’s cabin, where he and Noreen sleep.
Drix looked towards Xior and Varq and asked, “Should I do this?”
Varq looked at the warrior he’d raised from a cub and said, “Let your spirit be your guide. You are Dol’s instrument… his chosen one. None can know the mind of Dol as surely as you, for his thoughts are yours, and yours are his. Seek his guidance from within your own heart.”
Drix nodded and sought Xior’s eyes. Xior merely nodded and responded in solemn agreement with his brother OverMaster saying, “I stand in accession with the wisdom of my brother and add my own admonishment to his. If you truly follow your own heart in this momentous decision, you cannot go far wrong, my son.”
Drix turned to Diet and said, “I must sleep on this. With your permission, I will return here tomorrow evening with my mate and kit, so they too may taste of these human delicacies and come to know Hal’s family. I will give my answer then.”
* * * *
Late that evening, Hal spoke to Diet softly, as to not awaken Noreen or especially, little Hans. Drix is lying prone, before the Altar of Dol, within the main sanctuary of the temple.
“How do you know this?” asked Diet.
I wanted some warning in case they decided to send assault troops from the palace against us, so I sent a few of my smallest maintenance microbots scurrying within the shadows throughout the Temple of Dol and the imperial palace to keep an eye on everything going on around us. I’m receiving digitally encoded video feedback from those microbots using double-sideband, suppressed-carrier AM transmission, which I have found no similar utilization of, within the Raknii usage of the frequency spectrum. I’ll display one of those feeds on the main monitor now.
Diet turned and saw what appeared to be a Raknii male lying prone before the altar, but the lighting was quite dim and identification was impossible to Diet’s eyes. “Are you sure that’s him? It’s hard to tell in that dim lighting from just those few torches.”
Sorry… Let me enhance the image for you.
Diet watched as the light levels of the video were artificially amplified and the resolution sharpened until he could see that indeed, it truly was the Raknii supreme-master there, supine and seeking the will of his god.
“Do you really think he is actually going to surrender the entire Raknii Empire to two human males, one female and an 11-month-old child?”
You left out the part about the marvelous sentient computer with an undetectable warship… and a partridge in a pear tree. In a word... YES. Drix has been desperately looking for a justifiable reason to do just that.
“And you know this how?”
You forget, the me who’s asleep in the XO’s stateroom right now has lived with Drix for over three years. Lived with him, discussed the concepts of morality and ethics to beyond doctoral level with him, and suffered through the maze of problems Drix faces in changing the moral fabric of an entire race.
Drix knows the most stubborn of die-hards in his culture will never be able to accept such radical changes, simply because he orders it. Only if his race’s ingrained and hypnotically-enhanced responses to defeat in dominance combat can be triggered, may all eventually accept having their violent aggressiveness curtailed by an outside force more dominant than themselves.
He needed this war with humanity to demonstrate mankind’s military prowess, and now he has a legitimate reason to publicly submit to that prowess.
“Just because the four of us managed to sneak into the heart of his capital, undetected?”
Neither Drix, nor any of his people can truly know how many other undetectable ships might be lurking just outside of planetary orbit, just waiting to unleash a cataclysm of biblical proportions upon their sacred home world. They undoubtedly suspect the devastation that Stillman’s 2nd Fleet wreaked upon Slithin might have originated from a massive nuclear device, but they cannot be completely sure that humans were the cause of that explosion.
The idea that humanity might be so uncivilized as resort to ruinously lethal weapons of mass destruction terrifies them. What might a few new suns created by 100-megaton nukes detonated over the planetary poles of their home world do to their densely inhabited coastal areas? How many undetectable ships within their home system would it take to unleash enough nuclear hell to make this planet totally unlivable for the next few thousand years? Those are the questions that haunt Drix tonight.
Their population pressures have driven them ever outward, in search of new territory, for over a thousand years, so habitable planets are precious to them. They simply cannot comprehend a race depraved enough to turn a perfectly good, habitable planet into ruined glowing wreckage, just to kill their enemies upon it. The very idea of poisoning a living world, simply to deny it to one’s enemies, is absolutely heinous to the Raknii.
“But still, how can you possibly think he can justify surrendering the entire Raknii Empire to just three humans and a baby?”
It’s not what little that we few can actually do, it’s the unknown — the invisible threat of what “might” be lurking out there, and the unimaginable horrors those monstrous lurkers might not hesitate to unleash. That is what Drix will be submitting to.
* * * *
Chapter-30
Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives. -- Abba Eban
January 1, 3870
Sealed videos were sent out by spaceliner to every world in the Raknii Empire, with orders that the seals be broken and the contents of those videos broadcast simultaneously on every planet, on this particular day, so that the entire Raknii race would share equally in this momentous news. Twin sets of sealed videos were also dispatched by Raknii spaceliner to all of the planets lost to the human aliens… one in the Raknii language and another in English to apprise humanity of these events as well. The contents of these videos were meticulously scripted, thoroughly choreographed and carefully edited, so their impact would be maximized, as they documented history in the making.
The scene opened showing the Raknii supreme-master sitting upon his magnificent throne, in the great audience hall of his Imperial palace on Raku — flanked on all sides by region-masters of those three regions not yet engulfed by the rising human tide, wearing their regional colors of red, blue and brown on their silk blouses, with imperial white leggings. The camera then slowly zoomed in to display a close-up headshot, which filled the frame with Drix’ face, displaying his brilliant diamond-on-diamond sunburst rank-stones of the supreme-mastery to maximize their hypnotic effect on the viewers. The view then switched to display a chest-and-head shot, as Supreme-Master Drix began to speak.
“My fellow Raknii. It is with a heavy heart that I come before you today, for I bear a somber message. Almost twelve cycles ago, an oracle brought forth a dark message from our god, Dol. Since that time, a great number of the things that prophecy foretold have indeed come to pass, so the validity of that prophecy can no longer be doubted. It behooves us then to reexamine those prophetic words, in order to view current events, in light of the wisdom and undeniable will of Dol.�
�
Drix then extracted a sheaf of papers and began to read from them:
“I would that all Raknii returned to the old ways. There is wisdom in the old ways that our race has forsaken. Dol gave us this wisdom in the ancient days for a purpose, to guide us and shape us into what we should be, to fulfill our role in nature. When herd beasts proliferated beyond the land’s ability to provide sufficient nourishment for all, the Raknii culled their numbers back so that balance might be restored and there would once again be plenty for all. That was our great purpose in the universe.
“We did not kill just because something other moved within our perception. We killed and ate solely to satisfy physical hunger, a message from our bodies that they required additional nourishment to fuel life. When our hunger was satiated, prey beasts were perfectly safe to walk freely among us, and often did. We did not kill just because it was there.
“Today, the Raknii suffer from a different kind of hunger, a craving not related to the need for nourishment of the body, but for acclaim and acknowledgement. Now we kill whenever prey is present, simply because we can. We kill for amusement. Nothing is safe around us. We kill without consuming, and the nourishment of the kill goes rotting upon the ground.
“It is abomination! We no longer share the sacred life-death-life relationship with our prey. This insatiable hunger for glory and status is not a natural hunger, but an addiction. We are now the ones who are throwing nature out of balance, for the universe itself cannot manufacture enough blood to slake our ever-growing thirst for more, and yet ever more. Dol will not allow this error to flourish forever. We have become a proliferate weed that strangles the fruits in Dol’s garden of creation and threatens extinction of all of his creatures. Even now, I begin to perceive the beginnings of a great event… the birth pangs of an event that will cull the Raknii as we once culled back the prey herds when their numbers threw nature out of balance.
Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 3) Page 34
