Void Ship

by Dave Bara

  “No, really. I want to know,” she said. He opened one eye to gaze at her suspiciously, as if he expected a trap to be unveiled at any second. He answered anyway, against his own better judgment.

  “I prefer your looks, frankly. Yan’s looks, I mean. The Amanda body certainly has its compensations, though. Although the fusion reactor in your belly can be a bit intimidating,” he said.

  “You didn’t seem to mind too much.”

  “True,” he paused for a second, then decided to turn the tables on her. “Which do you prefer?” he asked.

  “This body,” she said running her hands up and down its synthetic skin. “It feels real to me. Solid. Even though my holographic cloned body was perfectly programmed, and the projection fields on the Kali allow for a complete human experience, this feels more right,” she said. “I can’t explain it any better than that.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said. “In a perfect world I’d have you in a body that looked like your original one, but felt as real as this one.”

  “I’ll get the other androids to start on that for me,” she said. He laughed with her.

  “Does the presence of the Amanda personality present any... problems?” he asked. She shook her head.

  “No. I’ve learned to completely repress her. She’s not even there, as far as I can tell.”

  “Good,” said Renwick, then he yawned. “God, I am tired.”

  “This body has a sleep mode, you know,” said Yan. “I can even program myself to dream.”

  “So what will it be tonight, brave captain?” he asked. “Flying with unicorns? Winged dragons in Elysian Fields? Or something simpler?” She lay her head on his chest, thinking.

  “I believe tonight I will dream of being a real girl again,” she said, “so that I can be with you.”

  He yawned again. “Sounds lovely,” he said, quietly mumbling something unintelligible as he drifted off. She kissed him on the cheek.

  “Sweet dreams,” she said, then she shut down the cabin lights.

  IT WAS NEARLY TEN HOURS later when Renwick woke from his first solid sleep in days. He got out of bed to find himself alone. He assumed nothing unusual had happened or the others would have woken him. He showered and shaved, reprocessing his clothes while he so did to freshen them up. He emerged feeling like a new man, and a very hungry one. After a brief but satisfying breakfast alone in the galley he made his way to the bridge. He found Mischa Cain at the navigation console.

  “Good morning, Mischa,” he said, cheery.

  “Good afternoon, Senator,” she said back. Renwick looked around the bridge area of the command deck, except for the two of them, they were alone.

  “Where is everybody?” he asked.

  “I believe they’re witnessing the birth,” said Mischa, more than a bit mischievously.

  “Birth? What the hell are you talking about?” he said.

  She smiled at him. “Just go to the android docks. They’ll explain when you get there.” Renwick eyed her askance, but her smile remained genuine. He walked over to the dock area and found Kish, Aybar, and Amanda/Yan standing over a repair table. From where he stood he could see the form of the female android lying flat on the table. Amanda was linked into the table via a mass of multi-colored wires.

  “What’s going on here?” Renwick asked.

  “Oh, Senator,” said Aybar, coming up to him and putting out a hand to slow his approach. “She didn’t want you to see her until the transfer was complete.”

  “See her? What transfer? What are you talking about?” he said. Then Kish waved him over.

  “Come look,” the engineer said.

  As he walked up Kish was busy watching readout monitors showing what appeared to be a massive data transfer in progress. Renwick stepped around him and looked down at the prone android body.

  It looked for all the world like a sleeping Tanitha Yan.

  “I don’t understand,” he said. “What’s going on, Kish?”

  “Well,” said the engineer, “a couple hours after you went to, um, bed, Amanda came out and started working on some project, didn’t say a word to any of us. Thorne and the female android started helping her after a bit. I got curious so I went over to her, and Amanda here ended up asking for my help. She had the female android down here on this table and was, well, converting it,” he finished.

  “Converting it? To what?” asked Renwick. Kish shrugged.

  “To this. The face was remolded to emulate Captain Yan, they added a voice box, other modifications were made to her, um, feminine features to make them more human, and about an hour ago they started the data transfer,” he said. Renwick looked from Amanda to the feminine android and back again.

  “What data, Kish?” he asked.

  “Captain Yan’s personality, I assume,” said Kish. Renwick stepped up and looked down at the android on the table, who appeared to be sleeping. He touched her hair, and her face. It did indeed appear to be Tanitha Yan, in every respect. She even had the new, distracting two-piece outfit Yan had changed into when she was still a cloned hologram.

  “Did she do this herself?” wondered Renwick aloud.

  “She set this process in motion,” said Amanda suddenly, “when she selected her dream.”

  Renwick was surprised by the sound of her voice; flat and mechanical as ever.

  “I see you’re back with us, Amanda,” he said, curious about her statement. “What do you mean by ‘selected her dream’?”

  “Captain Yan didn’t realize that she was connected to the Kali’s neural network through me,” said Amanda. “My consciousness was voluntarily suppressed, so there was no check in place. Both the Kali’s neural net and the androids interpreted her dream literally, as a command, and started the conversion process.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” said Renwick, looking down at the very lifelike Yan android and smiling.

  “If you’ll excuse me for a few more seconds, Senator, the transfer is nearly complete. I must finish,” she said, then she closed her eyes and appeared to shut down. After a few seconds she opened them again, and began disconnecting the wires. Renwick looked back down to the Yan android, who began to simulate breathing. She stirred, her eyes fluttered and she opened them, focusing immediately on Renwick. She looked for all the world like a real girl.

  “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” said Renwick. He took Yan’s hand and helped her to sit up. She looked at Kish, Aybar, and then Amanda before turning to Renwick.

  “What’s happened?” she said, then she ran her left hand down her exposed right arm, touching the skin. “Am I a digital clone again?”

  Renwick shook his head. “No, you’re finally a real girl, Tanitha Yan,” he said. Aybar handed her a mirror, and she held it up. She touched her face with her hands.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “I feel so... real.”

  “The androids interpreted your ‘dream’ as a command,” said Renwick. “They modified the body of the female android to make it like your dream, then Amanda downloaded your persona into the new android body, and well, here you are.” He couldn’t stop smiling.

  Yan stepped off the pallet and onto the floor. Her first steps were halting.

  “The brain-muscle connection is not as refined as in my body,” said Amanda, “but that will improve with time. You have every system necessary to simulate human behavior, in every aspect.”

  Yan looked to Amanda. “Thank you,” she said. Amanda nodded a positive response, with just a trace of a smile.

  Renwick stuck out his arm.

  “Would you like to take a walk around your bridge, madam?” he said. She took his arm, slowly coordinating her movements.

  “I would love to,” she said as they started out.

  “Hmm,” he said. “I think you’re a bit taller than before.” She leaned into him as they walked arm-in-arm, like young lovers in a park.

  “I always wanted to be taller,” she said as they strode off towards the bridge together.

&nbs
p; THE NEXT DAY THE MORNING shift was broken up by an incoming message, inbound over standard Raelen HD channels.

  “It must be from Makera,” said Renwick. It was.

  “It’s encoded,” said Amanda, who, without Yan, had now returned to her standard placid android personality.

  “Can you extract it?” said Yan.

  “Of course,” came the reply. A few seconds later Makera’s face appeared on the main display, the holographic image hovering over the command console. The black-and-white image was grainy and the sound quality was poor, punctuated by loud crackles and pops. There was no mistaking the look on her face, though.

  “...under attack. The Raelen Fleet has engaged the Soloth and Gataan. The colony cannot be pro...” the sound went completely at that point, replaced by raw footage, apparently from an observation probe. Yan moved closer to Renwick and then nudged him gently, whispering:

  “What is it?”

  “Looks like some sort of probe camera footage. Very low quality,” he said. A few seconds later Aybar, Mischa, and Kish had joined them in watching the display. The sound came back in fits and starts as the screen painted a dark and grainy gray visage, apparently a replay of a distress signal from one of the colony authorities, undoubtedly blocked from leaving the system by the Soloth/Gataan but picked up by the tracking probe. The tension in the man’s voice was clear - fear and desperation. Renwick concentrated on the words the man spoke, translated from Raelen to Terran Standard by the ship’s com system.

  “...unclear as to their intent. If you can hear us, anyone within range, we ask for assistance. I repeat, vessels of unknown origin have pierced the protective void placed around the colony. They are closing to firing range on our position. We need immediate assistance. Please reply...” the next few words were garbled by static. When the voice returned, panic was present.

  “...are under attack. Can you render assist-” Then the screen cleared abruptly, the voice stopped, replaced by blackness. After a few seconds a grainy grayscale image appeared. The Vadela colony could be made out as a dark rock with tiny lights, dwellings and mining stations, scattering the uneven surface. A chronometric display flickered in the lower left corner.

  “Looks like this footage is from an observation satellite at the jump point,” said Kish. The image flashed bright white three times, then bombardment impacts began to mottle the surface of the moon. The Soloth fleet must have been out of range of the satellite’s viewer, lobbing nuclear-thermal shells at the colony.

  “Those warheads are low yield,” said Yan. “Only one reason to use them in an attack like this.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Renwick.

  “I mean they’re taking their time, Renwick. They’re dragging it out to maximize the terror to the population and to send us all a message.”

  “What message?”

  “They like killing, Renwick,” Yan finished, then turned her back to the screen. “They’re animals.”

  “Turn it off,” said Renwick to Amanda in a quiet but firm voice. He wanted to be sick, but fought off the sensation. The others all turned away as well as Amanda shut the display down.

  “There is a follow-up message coming in. Much higher quality and on a stronger bandwidth,” Amanda said. Renwick put his hands on the command console.

  “Play it,” he said. This time Makera’s image was clear and so was the sound.

  “Senator Renwick. We are in pursuit of the Soloth fleet. Nine Gataan cruisers and numerous Soloth ships destroyed. We are point-five-two solar days behind you with a fleet of twenty-nine ships. Destination of the enemy fleet is unknown. I must warn you that the Soloth fleet contains scoop ships. I repeat, the Soloth have scoop ships. That’s how they broke through the Void field around Vadela. We are proceeding into the Void on your trail at best possible speed. We have alerted the Unity government of the situation. Please advise as to your intended destination. I hope to see you all soon. This is Makera, Ambassador of the Raelen Empire, out.” Her image faded from the display screen.

  “If the Soloth have scoop ships, that means they can attack us anywhere,” said Yan. “The Void is no barrier to them.”

  “But scoop ships can’t generate the Void, only clear it, right?” said Renwick.

  “Correct,” said Yan.

  “Then we still have one advantage,” he said. Yan shook her head.

  “This doesn’t make any sense. Coming at us with this whole fleet, unless...” she drifted off, lost in thought. Then she said, “I think I know what they’re doing.”

  “What?” asked Renwick. Yan looked pensive, then spoke.

  “When I left the emitter station, well, three centuries ago anyway, there were two more ships just like the Kali docked there,” said Yan. “But they weren’t supposed to be put in operation until after I had completed my mission. That’s what Zueros wants, that’s what they’ll go after, those other Void ships.”

  “Then they’ll have the power to isolate any system they want, then attack it at will, using the scoop ships to cut through the Void,” said Aybar.

  “We’re going to need help if we’re going to stop this invasion,” said Renwick. “Lots of it. And I think I know where to get it.” Yan was disbelieving.

  “The Unity?” she asked.

  “They’re too far away to help,” Renwick said. He looked around the command console at each of them in turn, then:

  “Lieutenant Cain,” he said. “Change our course back to Tarchus, best possible speed,” he said.

  “Yes sir,” she responded, then headed for her console.

  “Tarchus?” said Yan. “Are you mad?” Renwick shook his head.

  “I certainly hope not, captain,” he said, then he broke away, following Cain to the navigation station.

  “SO WHAT’S YOUR PLAN?” asked Yan of Renwick once they were set on their course to the Gataan home world again. The pair were alone at the command console again.

  “Plan? Negotiate. Persuade. Bully. It’s what I do best, and all that I’ve got,” said Renwick.

  “That’s it? That’s the plan?” she said.

  “Do you have a better idea? From what I can tell the future of the whole Orion arm of the galaxy is at stake, the future of at least three civilizations. There is only one potential ally close enough to help us destroy the emitter station and those Void ships, and that’s the Gataan,” he said.

  “Has the fact that they’re currently aiding the enemy escaped you, Senator?” said Yan, loud enough that Aybar and Kish looked up from their stations. Mischa Cain, to her credit, kept her head down. Renwick glanced at the other officers and then turned back to Yan.

  “Nothing has escaped me, captain,” he said. “If you’ll note our logs, you’ll notice that the Tarchus prime as in state of deep disarray, no doubt due to three centuries of isolation. Tribal warfare is the norm. That was true on Earth many times in the past as well. But there was a modern, operating, military base on that moon. I’m making a supposition here, but I think it’s a good one. If you were an outside force looking to exploit a race for its resources, and you found a planet in the midst of tribalism, what would you do?”

  Yan thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I don’t know, Renwick. I’m a ship captain, not a tactician.” He crossed his arms, frustrated that she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, see his point and he had to spell it out. He opened his mouth to speak when another voice interrupted him.

  “Find the strongest tribe, and give them the power to exploit the others in your favor.” The voice came from behind Yan. It belonged to Captain Aybar. Renwick nodded, then motioned her over.

  “Precisely,” he said. “What I would have done is set up the leaders of the most powerful clan or tribe as my surrogates, give them the power, the weapons, the advanced technology.”

  “That would undoubtedly piss off the rest of the planet,” said Yan.

  “Which means they might be willing to work with us,” said Aybar.

  “If they have any technological base left,” re
torted Yan. Renwick uncrossed his arms and leaned on the console.

  “It’s a gamble, I admit,” he said. “But we’re so outnumbered. It’s a chance I think we have to take.” Yan looked contemplative.

  “You’ll have precious few hours at Tarchus. I estimate we’re only six hours ahead of the Soloth at this point,” she said.

  “Yes, but you’re forgetting something,” said Renwick “Those scoop ships the Soloth had at Vadela are small, designed to open holes into a captive star system, probably with minimal capacity to cut enough normal space to bring something the size of a fleet through. So most likely they’re just content to follow us. They know we’ll have to go to the emitter station eventually, and when we get there they know we won’t have time to do much damage. When they arrive they’ll just overwhelm us with numbers.”

  “That’s what I’d do,” agreed Aybar.

  “And with the Raelen fleet probably another half day or so behind them, they can get entrenched, launch the other Void ships, hell, even cut off the Raelen fleet from the station by filling in the path we cut,” said Yan. Renwick nodded.

  “So, thus, we need allies. If the Gataan can slow them down when they get here, it might give us enough time to find a way to dive the station and blow it, and those other ships, before they get there,” he said.

  “They only question, Renwick, is what will we have to give up to get the Gataan to cooperate?” said Yan.

  “I wish I knew,” he said. Then he walked over to the navigation station. “Time to the Gataan system, Lieutenant Cain?” he said.

  “Seven hours, twenty-six minutes,” she said.

  “And that,” he said to his companions, “is when we will know if this mission has a future or not.”

  15. A return to tarchus

  “Those ships are coming at us fast,” said Aybar as she monitored the weapons console.

  “I still want to apply active defenses,” said Yan, her demeanor had been decidedly foul since they had re-entered the Tarchus system.

  “No!” insisted Renwick, shaking his head. “We have to appear friendly, or at least sympathetic with their cause. If we don’t this whole thing could blow up in our faces.”