Reconnaissance in Force (Book 6 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  He felt the connection appear in his implants. “Marcus, please connect with this computer and see what information you can get from it.”

  “Right away,” the AI said. “Connection established. It’s remarkably restricted. It literally only knows what it just told you.”

  He scowled. “Then why have a sophisticated computer?”

  “It seems the processing power must be in the function it performs,” Carl said. “If I wanted a lock that no one else could pick, this might just be the way. Whatever it does will mesh with the computer in the vault in some manner.

  “Without the key, the vault won’t open. Since it’s restricted to Imperial blood, no one can steal it. Well, not anyone that isn’t related to the Imperial line.”

  Jared shook his head. “That seems silly. What if the emperor died without an heir? How would they open the vault?”

  “Brute force and ignorance,” Carl said matter-of-factly.

  “You’ve spent too much time with Angela. I’m fairly sure that won’t work out well for the burglars.”

  He set the scepter back on the padded rest. “I’m not sure what would be so important to Marcus or Lucien once the AIs kicked them off Terra.”

  “Perhaps Emperor Marcus put something into the vault that’s critical to stopping the AIs once and for all.”

  “It would’ve been nice if he’d left a note about that.” Jared sighed. “He may have hoped to turn things around. At this point, we’ll probably never know. Visiting Terra is somewhat low on our list of priorities.”

  “Admiral, I have found a segregated piece of memory inside the scepter,” Marcus said. “It’s locked and I cannot access it.”

  Computer, what is in the segregated memory?

  This unit is aware of no segregated memory.

  “Interesting. It doesn’t know about it. Is it part of the computer?”

  Carl frowned. “Hang on. I can see it through Marcus. It’s located in an area that is read-only for most computers. There’s no reason for something so basic to be protected so well.”

  “Can you unlock it?”

  The scientist shook his head. “No, but you might be able to. Just like you don’t need to sense the computer to link with it, you might not need to directly access it.”

  “You know that doesn’t make sense, right?”

  “Think of it like a blind connection. The computer can’t sense the memory, but if you tell it to access the sectors I give you, it might be able to do so. A function it doesn’t even know it has. One that only someone actually able to use the scepter could even fathom, but most would never think to look for. Marcus is a lot more observant than the average computer.”

  “Thank you,” the AI said.

  Carl gave Jared a series of numbers, and he instructed the computer to read the area. An image immediately appeared in his head. It was Emperor Marcus. He appeared very much as he had in the transmission Kelsey had found on Pentagar, but was now seated behind a desk.

  “Son, I’m sorry that I can’t be there for you. I can only pray that you’ve managed to escape the notice of the rebels and have arrived at Avalon safely. If not, I suppose you won’t be seeing this.

  “Maybe when you’re older, you’ll understand why I couldn’t take you with me. It’s not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t bear the thought of you dying with me. Which, I have to assume, is the most likely end.”

  The man sighed tiredly. “We’re about to pull out of Terra. We can’t hold the system. Based on their tactics, the rebels will destroy everything in space and use EMP blasts from orbit to kill most of the technological base. The death toll is going to be hideous.

  “We’ve pulled as many people as possible onto the ships with us, but the rebels will keep pursuing us. We’ll try to give the civilian ships as much lead as we can before Fleet turns and fights, but freighters and personnel transports can’t match a battlecruiser’s acceleration.”

  Marcus leaned forward intently. “Once they pacify a system, they don’t leave a lot of force there. They start infecting the population through their implants and move on. That’s why they can keep using so many of the ships they’ve captured.

  “I’m hoping that once they’ve moved past Terra that you can strike back for me. I never spoke with you about the AIs, but they have a weakness. One specific unit in a system called Twilight River controls them. If you can co-opt it, you can end the rebellion and reverse the infection in everyone.”

  Jared smiled sadly. The man had no idea that the rebels would find Lucien and pursue him right to Avalon’s atmosphere. They’d destroyed every Fleet vessel and it had taken longer than Lucien had lived to regain the lost technology.

  The boy emperor hadn’t had the benefit of medical nanites. They didn’t implant the devices until someone was in their late teens because they could interfere with the early development of a growing body. The Empire had relied on their advanced medical care to correct any issues before then. He’d only had a normal human lifespan.

  “The scepter will get you into the vault once you slip back into the Terra system. They might flatten the palace, but you know the other ways in. Don’t do anything to alert them to your presence.

  “Inside the vault, you’ll see an amazing number of things. Treasures sent to the emperors from all across the Empire since the very beginning. You’ll need to move to the rear of the vault and look for a plain wooden crate on the floor. It’s not big, but be careful with it. The contents are irreplaceable.”

  An image of a small crate appeared in the corner of Jared’s vision. He’d recognize it, if he ever saw it.

  “That crate contains the only override for the AI that exists. Or, perhaps I should say, that still exists. There was one on the station at Twilight River, but I’m sure the AI saw to its destruction at once.

  “One of the scientists was visiting the nearby Fleet base to consult with a colleague and broke every security rule to give her a peek. They managed to escape with it when the AI infiltrated the Fleet base.”

  Emperor Marcus rubbed his face. “I understand that leaving it in the vault probably seems stupid, considering that we know the AIs will overrun the system, but I can’t take the chance that they destroy the ship carrying it.

  “It may be possible for me to send some Raiders to recover it, if we’re more successful than I imagine. They’d have to break in, but that isn’t impossible if I give them the plans. Which, by the way, are appended at the tail of this message.”

  He smiled wryly. “I know this is a terrible final message for a father to leave his son, but all our hopes ride with you. I love you, boy. Always remember that. When you have a family of your own, you’ll understand. Godspeed.”

  The message ended and a file uploaded to Jared’s implants. It had a very detailed map of the Imperial Palace on Terra, exquisite specifications on the vault itself, and a listing of the contents. The sheer number of priceless historical artifacts in that massive chamber stunned him.

  After a moment, he set that aside and looked at the plans. He didn’t know that much about breaking and entering, but this wouldn’t be easy, even with inside information.

  He had no idea what the situation was really like on Terra. Olivia West said that the AI had given up on subduing the population and bombed it back into the Stone Age. The Imperial Palace might not even exist anymore. Yet, he now knew they had no choice but to make the journey.

  If there was any chance at all they could turn this around, it would require the override. Otherwise, every AI in the Old Empire would keep fighting. Hell, there was no guarantee that they could even get to the Twilight River research station. The AI probably had a massive fleet there to defend itself.

  “That was useful,” he told Carl and Marcus once he’d digested everything. “Here’s what I got.” He sent them the message and the plans to the vault.

  “Too bad there weren’t plans for the override itself,” Carl complained. “Then we could build our own.”

&
nbsp; “Probably not,” Marcus said. “Much like the key, it’s probably all tied up in the specific computer programming and custom hardware. We’ll need the actual override to plug into the master AI. What I wish the emperor had mentioned was who was behind the attack in the first place.”

  “I’m pretty sure that whoever they were, they lost control,” Jared said. “Otherwise, the AIs wouldn’t still be running everything.

  “We’ll need to brief the emperor. When the time comes for our trip to Terra, we’ll have to appropriate the key. For right now, that’s a low priority. We have to capture the freighter and make sure the escort, if any, doesn’t make it home.”

  He smiled at Carl. “This time we’re ready. All we have to do is get into place and wait for them to obligingly come calling.”

  * * * * *

  Annette took Levy down to the launch bay and into the ready room. “Now that you have implants, I think you need to see how they can affect things like flying a ship. It also gives me an opportunity to show off the fighters for you.”

  “That doesn’t sound very light duty,” he said with a smile. “I think the doctor is going to be annoyed with me.”

  “I’ll take it easy,” she assured him. “I only make people throw up when they’re feeling good.”

  “Thanks. Seriously, isn’t the acceleration going to be a problem?”

  She shook her head. “I had them relocate a training fighter to the landing bay. We’ll go out nice and easy.”

  “Training fighter?”

  “It’s easier to show you after we get you suited up.”

  Jake Fiennes was waiting to get Levy into flight gear, so she let them go while she mentally reviewed her planned excursion. There’d be no in atmosphere flight or hard acceleration. It was basically a joyride. One that would allow the newly implanted officer to interface with the small craft and get a feel for what that meant.

  Fifteen minutes later, Jake brought Levy back out. She nodded approvingly. “You look ready. Okay, let me give you the safety spiel first. If for any reason we have to eject, you need to keep your hands in your lap and sit up straight. The grav drives in the seats are not light duty by any stretch of the imagination, so we’ll try to avoid that.

  “Second, while on the fighter, I am in command. If I give an order, it is for the safety of the vehicle and you need to obey without argument. Clear?”

  He nodded. “Perfectly. I won’t be a problem.”

  “We can cover the rest while I’m doing the final preflight. Come on.”

  She led him back to the landing bay. The training fighter was very similar to the regular version, except that it had an extended body and a second cockpit in front of the normal one. That allowed a trainer to observe everything a new pilot did while not seeming like they were hovering.

  “This is the trainer,” she said. “You’ll be in the front, so it’ll feel like you’re alone. That’s by design. I’ll be communicating with you the entire time.”

  Annette gave the bird a good preflight and showed Levy how to enter the cockpit. Once he was seated, she made sure he was firmly strapped in.

  “Before you put your helmet on, there are a few other things,” she said. “The fighter has a lot of emergency supplies onboard, so unless the fighter is in danger of exploding—which is exceedingly unlikely—we’ll be fine in the event of trouble. We’re not even going that far away from Audacious.

  “Second, your controls are locked out unless and until I activate them. In the also unlikely event that I’m somehow disabled, the controls will activate for you. The fighter keeps good track of our health. You’ve piloted a cutter before, so I know you can get back to the ship if you have to.”

  He nodded. “Got it.”

  “Strap your helmet on and connect it to the life support system. In the event that the cabin loses pressure, you’re still going to be fine. I’ll settle in back and take us out. Once we’re clear of traffic, we’ll get started with your familiarization.”

  Annette got herself situated and linked with the fighter’s on board computer. The cameras in the front cockpit allowed her to see Levy. She’d make sure he could see her when they got out.

  The fighter didn’t have standard controls like a cutter or pinnace. Pilots controlled these high tech marvels directly through their implants.

  That scared a lot of new pilots. What if something went wrong?

  In fact, this way was a lot safer for the pilots. All the fighter’s systems were in range of the implants, even without the amplifying effects of their helmets. Each system had multiple control interfaces in case of damage. The only way to lose contact with a system was the destruction of the system in question.

  On a cutter, an unlucky bit of damage could take out a control run and leave systems offline. Even with multiple dedicated runs, those craft were more vulnerable than the Raptors.

  The other weak link in the control chain was the pilot’s implants. Since they were in their heads, the loss of their implants wasn’t that much of a concern. They wouldn’t be caring if they were dead or unconscious.

  The lack of a control panel also meant that the pilot wasn’t tempted to use the less efficient manual controls. The implants were so much more versatile.

  With the fighter amplifying their implant range, a pilot could directly control someone else’s fighter if the on board computer detected they were disabled and the rescuer had the appropriate authorization.

  The command pilots—those with the highest level of training and authority—had override codes. They could literally take over another fighter from close by, even if the pilot wasn’t disabled.

  She smiled. That usually unnerved the hell out of the new guys. It was also useful in simulating systems failures.

  None of this was important for the moment, though. Commander Levy probably didn’t have what it took to be a fighter pilot. This was just an orientation run.

  Annette cleared her departure with Control and lifted them off the deck. A light touch on the grav drives sent them coasting out of the bay at a leisurely few hundred meters a second. With the drives online from the start, there was no feeling of acceleration.

  She opened an audio link to the other cockpit. “Okay, we’re clear of the ship. If you open your implants up, you’ll detect an access point for the fighter. As I said, I’ve locked out your controls, so you’re not going to do anything if you stretch your wings. You’ll be able to use its scanners to see what’s going on around us.”

  His eyes widened. “Holy cow. I can see every status on the fighter without searching around for it, and the view is unreal. It feels like seeing, but it’s not really visual. More like a 3-D tactical display.”

  “That’s a good analogy. You can see me if you try. We could communicate solely by implant, but that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.”

  He nodded. “I see you now. How do you keep everything straight without displays to monitor?”

  “I treat the fighter like my body. It takes a while to get used to it, but it’s incredibly natural. You can also tell it to create virtual displays through your implants. That’s usually how most people learn to fly, so it’s comfortable.

  “In this case, I want you to do this the hard way. Look at our course. See how we’re coming up on some geosynchronous satellites? I want you to turn us a few degrees to either side of our present course. I’ve released the flight controls to you, though I have override authority.”

  The course change was more abrupt than he’d intended, she was sure. That was a natural mistake for a first timer. They didn’t realize how sensitive the controls were.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I overcorrected.”

  “You didn’t know what to expect. I’m going to throw a waypoint onto the scanner readings. Change course for that and increase our speed by ten percent. We’re positively dawdling.”

  Over the next hour, she gradually added systems to his control until he had a very good idea of the complexity of what it meant to pilot a fighter
. He handled them better than she’d expected. Maybe he had what it took after all. That was something to explore at greater length later.

  “Okay, I think you have the basic idea,” she finally said. “Now it’s time to give you a demonstration of what it means to be in the advanced course.”

  Annette brought up a dogfight simulation. Empty space suddenly became a 3-D nightmare of ships going every direction at maximum speed, all while shooting at one another.

  “Holy shit!” he blurted, trying to dodge the fighter around an oncoming enemy. Proximity alarms blared as he almost collided with their fictional wingman.

  That’s when someone dropped in behind them and fired missiles. The end was quick.

  “Oops,” she said. “You’re dead. Don’t feel bad. I got blown up just about that fast the first time, too. Being a fighter pilot is dangerous business.”

  He stared at her out of the mental screen. “How the hell do you keep all of that straight? With all the other fighters, I couldn’t even tell which ones were on my side, much less where any of them were going.”

  “Training and practice. We have to keep all of the variables in our heads. I ran an ambush yesterday where most of my squadron died, including me. We train hard so that doesn’t happen when things get real, but up close and personal, a lot of us will die anyway. That’s what we do.”

  He frowned hard. “I said I knew what you meant about being a fighter pilot, but it turns out I had no idea. I’m going to have a lot of work ahead of me to understand not only what it means to be a fighter pilot, but to command them from the deck of a carrier.

  “On the plus side, I think I have a good idea of how implants work on a small ship like this. The capabilities are a lot more intuitive than I expected. I’m sure this is only the start of my education, but I get it. Hopefully, I’ll pick up the critical things more quickly. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure. Now, since we’re done, I’ll let you find Audacious and take us home. Try not to get us killed on the way,” she added with a smirk.

  Chapter Twelve