Destiny Stone (A.I. Destiny Book 4)

by Timothy Ellis

  "You’re lucky he didn’t want you dead," said Snark. "If he was aiming at your heart you probably would be by now."

  "Thanks for that," said Jamie, with a characteristic smile, if a bit wan.

  "The Brotherhood?" Snark asked Anna.

  "Who knows?" she replied. "It could be, but then it could be anyone, maybe even a local heist? But really, he seemed to concentrate fire on Jamie. It has to be the Brotherhood. Maybe they’ve realised about the suits, and are finding ways around it?"

  "How do they know where we are?" asked Snark, to the room in general.

  Anna was silent.

  Snark thought for a minute.

  "Did you get anything?" he asked Anna.

  "Yes. Perhaps further directions. I didn’t get a chance to examine anything, but I have images, hopefully."

  "Then let’s get out of here."

  She agreed.

  They left the three systems.

  Thirty Four

  Sissness had analysed the images from the Standing Stones. She'd had to use some software to boost the resolution of the images, and also to bring up the very faint marks the 'gods' had made. She had final images which could be read. They looked again like star charts.

  The Cyrillic writing below the star charts was easier to see, but the translation program still needed to be perfected to find out what the words meant. She put the translation of the Russian text as her priority.

  Snark, Anna, and Patters took the star chart images, and entered them into a navigation program to match current charts with these.

  Jamie was out of the med unit, but one leg was too sore to walk on. The doc-droid had given him a crutch come walking stick, so he could hobble around. He'd used the time before the care unit had released him, to look up the specs for the belt suits. There was a warning there about not letting any one spot take sustained fire from any kind of weapon. While the suit would stop any real damage right up until the moment it shredded, repeated hits in the same place would result in bruising, in spite of the momentum shift.

  There was also a note saying the next model should eliminate both the hop, and the bruising problems. The note was more than a year old now, and Jamie guessed the great memory wipe had interrupted suit development, perhaps stopped it completely. He made a note to bring it up with Jane's people when they passed through the Kingdom next.

  He was much more his usual self, making one-legged jokes constantly, which was funny to start with, but wore a bit thin after a while.

  Anna was very protective of him, which he felt was very encouraging. They'd almost come to an understanding at the standing stones. Why did reality have to intervene? They were much closer though, and he felt elated, even though the leg was giving him pain.

  Snark had made a match on the star chart. It confirmed the Scylla system as a destination, with possibly some coordinates once they got there, but had also pinpointed another system. There was no explanation of why. It was on the way, and should be investigated.

  Sissness had finally been able to come up with a translation of the Cyrillic text. She started with the first text they'd imaged at the Perdita caves.

  "I follow in the footsteps of the gods," she quoted, "but will surpass them. The Stone sees all."

  Anna was pale.

  "It sounds like Vasily. His arrogance knows no bounds."

  "The other one is interesting. It’s a set of markers for passage through various systems according to star charts which would have been around about that time. And then the text, 'In the footsteps of gods, I will become one.'"

  Anna choked and laughed.

  "Vasily really is, was, something."

  "The information re the markers could be useful," said Sissness

  They discussed the attack at the Standing Stones. Jamie told them what he'd discovered about the belt suits.

  "It seems the kind of belt Jamie was wearing," said Patters, who'd also looked up the belts in the ship database, "was a military one, which is why he took nothing more than bruising, while Anna has the civilian model. If there's rapid fire with a large enough calibre at the exact same point, then there is risk of damage through the suit to the subject beyond, from impact wounds. If there’s a large enough calibre such as a hit from a small missile, it could lead to the shredding of the suit itself, after which the wearer is unprotected."

  Patters was quite matter of fact.

  "So anyone wearing a belt could be vulnerable?" asked Anna.

  "Jamie's and Snark’s belts are full military ones. It looks as if the Brotherhood has some intelligence regarding the human armour technology. The assailant on the planet with the Standing Stones knew something about what he was doing. Or perhaps this was a trial by the Brotherhood to test our defences?"

  "Possible," said Snark. "As I understand it, both the military and civilian versions will take a large explosion and still keep the wearer safe, but they are vulnerable to repeated hits on the same spot. Being in a laser firefight wouldn’t usually have you hit in the same place repeatedly. The main problem seems to be the suits were designed for energy weapons, not metal slugs, and while they were improved for them, bruising is a side effect of being hit too many times."

  He paused, looking at Jamie.

  "You messed up."

  "How so?"

  "You stayed in one place and let him shoot you repeatedly."

  "I was trying tae shoot back at him."

  "You should have done like Anna did, and find cover."

  "You got cocky," said Brindle. "Too much faith in your suit to protect you."

  Jamie opened his mouth, and closed it again, thinking.

  "Ye're probably right. Being in a gun fight is different from running simulations of them. I'll do better next time."

  He didn’t say it, but next time he'd make sure the combat routines he hadn’t known he'd had, went primary before he even drew his gun.

  Snark made a mental note to get as much information from Seasprite as possible about the belts, but also to message Jane to let her know about this incident.

  Warspite had monitored everything, and as they moved the discussion on, he sent all the feeds to Jane. To his surprise, she responded quickly, informing him she had no idea where suit development had been heading. She'd known Jon was constantly tweaking the designs, but if improvements were made in the year she'd been isolated in this galaxy while the Darkness War had raged, they hadn’t been sent to her. She known Jon had a special version himself, but if it had been mass produced, it had never made it to Gaia. It could have been only those who stayed behind had been issued with a better version, since they were in the most danger. She was going to look into assembling a new development team, since Jon's original team had been lost to them.

  "Next steps?" asked Brindle, after a few minutes of silence.

  "We head for the second system, using some of Vasily’s markers. If the 'gods' indicated it on the Standing Stones, it must be important."

  Sissness was unusually adamant. Jamie looked at Anna, and they both smiled.

  "No-one’s asked how the Brotherhood knew we were at the Standing Stones," stated Patters.

  Everyone looked surprised. Of course! The Brotherhood hadn’t followed them, so how had they had an operative waiting there?

  No-one had an answer.

  "Either there’s an intelligence network feeding the Brotherhood as soon as we turn up, or even before, or …" suggested Snark.

  "…or an informer," suggested Brindle.

  "…or a tracking device," pointed out Patters.

  The team discussed the suggestions. None of them could be informers. Even if they wanted to, when could they have done it? The intelligence network was entirely possible, in fact the most obvious answer. Even though the Brotherhood didn’t have sects or operatives in this area, didn’t mean they couldn’t co-opt paid agents.

  They considered the tracking device. The sensors showed nothing.

  "When could a tracking device have been put on the ship?" asked An
na.

  They all thought hard.

  "At the Cat Homeworld, or anywhere we stopped between there and here," said Jamie.

  "What about the survivors we took on board after the last battle" asked Patters. "We put them on the first station we passed, but what if they’d left something behind?"

  "Could be," said Snark. "We need to check all of the places they might have been. The brig for starters."

  They resolved to check all avenues, and Snark set course for the coordinates for the system indicated in the star charts.

  They were getting closer.

  Thirty Five

  Brother Paulus was livid, but his face was a mask as always.

  "I injured one of them, I know I did!"

  "I’m sure you did," said Paulus to himself, though he felt like punching the agent in the nose through the vid.

  The agent, who was a pig-being, kept talking, but Paulus wasn’t listening any more. The being was an agent of the mercenaries he’d done the deal with, and had been assigned to capturing the members of the Seasprite team who went to the surface of the planet. It was a fairly risky attempt to gain hostages, and possibly control of the Seasprite, but hadn’t panned out. You had to try these things, even if they might be a little hastily organised, and not very well conceived.

  Paulus had no control over this being, but could have him punished through his mercenary allies.

  He ended the vid with the being still trying to explain himself, and thought for a moment.

  They were tracking the Seasprite nicely. They seemed on a route which would take them to the Scylla system at least. If beyond there, they would be able to get ample intelligence through new networks he was building, and allies he was forming this far out and beyond. If he forgot the Stone, he had enough new friends to start to influence beings to the cult immediately.

  Of course, there was a lot of infrastructure to put into place first. There always was. He thought the Brotherhood had more in common with Outlook station than they cared to recognise.

  Paulus was very pleased with himself. His last report to Brother Prime had been well-received, if still demanding results, but he hadn’t been censured, or removed, as his predecessors had been. Some permanently.

  He'd solidified the mercenary alliance, expanded his networks in this sector, and started to establish an intelligence network into the whole of the sector. He'd had the Seasprite pinpointed, and knew the team’s movements at any time. He was planning on the Scylla system as being their destination, and so was setting up a network of mercenary operatives as far and as fast as he could.

  He liked to have a plan, and to execute it down to the fine details. He was in charge of this situation, and he knew he could prevail against the disorganised bunch of amateurs he was up against. While they had human technology, they seemingly couldn’t forward plan, and were vulnerable in terms of strategy.

  He smiled an avian smile. His beak opened slightly, and his eyes glinted with anticipation. He started to devise a series of unspeakable torture for when he captured them. He would win. He knew it.

  Thirty Six

  Snark found the tracking device located behind a toilet in the brig. It was a very sophisticated piece of technology, which could even be of human derivation, and had obviously defeated the scanners, having been there since, most likely, the taking on of prisoners at the last battle.

  This meant the Brotherhood knew where they were.

  Jamie and Snark discussed what to do with it.

  "We could heave it overboard," suggested Jamie.

  "Perhaps put it on another ship to lead them in a different direction?" suggested Snark.

  "I like ye’re thinkin’."

  "Or we could keep it on board for now. They probably know where we’re headed. No need for us to let them know we know about it."

  "Too tricky for me. They’ll still be able to track us."

  "Yes, but we know they are. And they don’t know we know. We can be prepared for them."

  Jamie thought.

  "Still too tricky for me."

  In the end, they raised it with the others, and agreed they would somehow get it onto another ship, which might confuse the Brotherhood for a while.

  The main concern, was the Brotherhood knew which direction they were travelling in, and would most likely have worked out their destination, or knew it was on the way. They needed some way of knowing what the Brotherhood plans were.

  "Apart from having an agent on the inner council, we’re not likely to be able to get any information," said Brindle.

  "What do we know about them so far?" asked Sissness.

  "What do you mean?" said Snark.

  "It’s just we can try and work out what they’re going to do next, from past behaviour, or what we know to be the way they think."

  "Aye, tactics," agreed Jamie.

  "We know this Paulus went to the trouble of having a diversionary battle to potentially get a tracking mechanism on board the Seasprite," said Sissness. "That’s a lot of trouble to go to for something which might not have worked out. What if we hadn’t rescued the survivors?"

  "Perhaps he knows us too well," suggested Anna.

  "Yes, perhaps that’s the case," continued Sissness. "Paulus has studied us, and knows we’re likely to be merciful and try to help survivors rather than leave them in space. The question is, what do we know about him?"

  The others looked at each other.

  "Well, from Hootsmoon’s notes, the pirate’s intelligence, and Snark’s notes from Plight City, the Brotherhood in general are ruthless. No mercy from them. They probably despise us for our ethics, but will make full use of it as a weakness." She took a breath. "This Paulus, from the pirate intel, is doubly ruthless. He’s ambitious, which makes him even more dangerous, but he thinks things through. I think he'll have several plans in place to get control of us and the Seasprite before we get to the Scylla system, but he probably knows they are likely to fail. He’ll still try, just on the off-chance. The point is he must have resources and contacts in this part of the galaxy. The last attack shows it."

  "And when we get to Scylla?" asked Anna.

  "He’ll have a plan either to capture us before we get the stone or afterwards. Before, means he may miss out on finding it, as we could be killed before we tell him what we know. After, means we may have more power as a result of having the stone."

  "Ye’ve obviously been givin’ this a great deal o’ thought," said Jamie, with a smile.

  "I’ve been going over and over the data. It gives me a sense of how they think," said Sissness. "But I get the feeling this Brother Paulus will stop at nothing to get the Stone. It’s how the Brotherhood are set up. Failure is punished with death. For Brother Paulus, the stakes are high. If he gets control of the stone, he will have great power, even if he doesn’t use the stone for his own purposes."

  "I think I’ll keep looking for another tracking device," said Snark. "If the Brotherhood got one on board, there may be others."

  "And we need to be aware he won’t be stopping at just tracking us," warned Sissness.

  "Yes, he’ll try anything," said Anna.

  "He’s probably hiring mercenaries as we speak," added Snark.

  "Aye, he doesn’t need to get Brotherhood forces here. He’ll just hire whatever passes for it here in this part of the sector," said Jamie.

  "Should we change our strategy?" asked Patters. "Should we try to get to Scylla more quickly? It will give him less time to organise."

  The others considered this.

  Sissness spoke up.

  "I don’t think it will matter. I think he’s probably already organised. He had an agent at the Standing Stones. He couldn’t have known if we were going to go there, but he had someone already in place."

  "We need to get to the point on the star chart emphasised by the ‘gods’. We still need to find the Stone." Anna was adamant. "I’m sure we’ll find something there which will help us when we get to Scylla."

  "And w
e need a plan for when we get there," said Snark. "None of this just go in all guns blazing, stuff."

  Jamie looked a little crestfallen, and then winked.

  "I like a plan," said Snark, and smiled.

  Thirty Seven

  Warspite invited Tranquil into a real time chat mode, even though she was several systems away. It was close enough for real time coms, but not for real time AI mode. There was enough lag it was easier to just talk.

  "I'm not liking where things are headed," said Warspite.

  "Nor I, but they seem to at least be aware of the potential problems, if not having a decent plan yet."

  "It bothers me neither Seasprite or I were able to detect the tracking beacon."

  "Something new perhaps?"

  "Could be. I wish I could just tell them to stop for a day or two, so the repair droids could work on the hull, and check it thoroughly at the same time."

  "Seasprite could."

  "No, not really. At this point, they still don’t realise how intelligent their ship computer really is. If it starts thinking for them, they're going to guess."

  "And Jane doesn’t want that happening."

  "Yes. It might not matter though."

  "Them finding out about us?"

  "No. Another homing device might not matter. You need to be closer though."

  "I'm running close to full speed as it is. Staying well away from any planet or station means taking the long way around each system. What I need is for them to slow down enough for me to catch up, or better yet, get in front of them."

  "I'll see what I can do, but in the meantime, you better run the red lines. If we need you, there won't be more than five hours' notice, so you need to be that close."