by M. D. Cooper
As she tried to clear the vision, Tanis heard Sera say, “Oh, yeah, simple,” and opened her eyes to see Finaeus peering at her.
Tanis turned her gaze to her daughters and tried not to think about what she just saw and what it meant.
“Then ascended AI are just five-dimensional creatures?” Saanvi asked.
Finaeus laughed. “Just five dimensional creatures? As if that wasn’t enough to make them gods in our eyes. But no, that is not what they are—not only, at least. An AI, as those of you present all know—especially the AI among you—still needs a place to be. Even your Bob, multi-nodal as he is, still exists somewhere in physical space that you can put your hand to. But an ascended AI, in its fifth dimension, does not have what we could consider to be a corporeal being. As best we can tell, they exist directly within…or on the quantum foam of the universe. It’s where they draw their energy from, it’s their home.”
“I don’t get it,” Nance spoke up. “If they exist in, and on Zero-Point energy, why do they need to live near Sagittarius A*? What use do they have for a supermassive black hole?”
“Honestly?” Finaeus replied. “We don’t know. Maybe they travelled there before they fully ascended. Maybe they plan to use its gravitational mass—after it merges with the core of the Andromeda Galaxy, and later all the galaxies of the Virgo Supercluster—to survive the eventual heat-death of the universe. Or maybe the big crunch—whichever actually occurs.”
“Why is there no record of this?” Sera asked. “Why does no one know what Jelina found? The records about her just say that she went off on a mission to chart the core of the galaxy and died while they were out there.”
“Records can be altered,” Finaeus replied somberly. “Jelina, as you know, was your father’s third wife. Mother of both Serge and Andrea, plus a few others of your father’s brood. What you don’t know, is that she is also your mother.”
“What?” Sera gasped. “But she was gone eons ago, I’m just seventy-two now. There’s no way she’s my mother.”
“Before she left, Jelina and Jeff conceived several children and placed them in stasis. You were one of those children, Sera. Your father has brought several of them out from time-to-time, raised them, though never told them about their mother.”
Tanis watched Sera fall back in her seat, flabbergasted.
“What happened to Jelina?” Tanis asked. “You said she came back changed.”
“She did, at that, she…she…” Finaeus faltered. “She wasn’t ascended, but she came back in a construct, her mind loaded into an AI’s neural net.”
“They made her into an AI?” Sera asked.
“They made a thing,” Finaeus replied. “A thing that talked and thought like Jelina, but was not Jelina. It was—it is—something else.”
“Is?” Tanis asked.
“Is,” Finaeus nodded. “She’s the reason why Kirkland broke Orion away from the Transcend. She’s the reason I was exiled.”
“Stars,” Tanis whispered. “She’s Airtha.”
She glanced at Sera and saw a look of incredulity on her friend’s face.
“Is it true?” Sera asked, her eyes boring into Finaeus’s.
Finaeus nodded slowly. “It is true. Airtha is Jelina. Airtha is your mother.”
“Then Helen…Myriad…”
“Yes,” Finaeus replied. “They are aspects of Airtha. I suspected—before I was exiled—that Helen may have been one such aspect of Airtha, but I didn’t tell your father, I didn’t want him to do something…rash.”
“Too late for that,” Sera muttered.
“And now…Jeff…” Finaeus shook his head. “He once embodied every virtue of the FGT. He was such a strong voice advocating for the program. Terraformers spreading ahead of humanity, preparing the galaxy for people. We were all such fools.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Tanis interrupted. “I believe that spirit is still alive and well in the FGT. I’ve seen it.”
Finaeus looked at her, his eyes hollow. “But look at the wars, the loss of life, the manipulation. Hell, what’s to come could be the worst ever—you possess weapons so powerful you could destroy everyone.”
“Everyone dies eventually,” Tanis said softly. “Or at least, they should. Death in and of itself is not evil, not wrong, it is a part of this vast and beautiful universe we live in. Even killing? Is it evil? The universe kills constantly and mercilessly. Is it evil?”
“Mom, what are you saying? That it’s OK to murder?” Cary asked, her face ashen.
Tanis shook her head. “I’m saying that the nature of what is right and wrong—on a galactic, or universal, scale—is almost impossible to fathom. For all our power, our abilities, in a billion years, few of our works will remain. In five billion? None. We’re nothing more than rather mobile dust, just a little more organized than the rest of the dust out there, insofar as the universe is concerned.”
“So, what then?” Sera asked. “Is our lot just to claw at one another for as long as our species survives?”
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s no different than if we live in a utopia for eternity,” Jessica said. “If our existence is meaningless, that is.”
“Which,” Tanis said with a smile, “is what we must hold onto. Our existence is far from meaningless. We are not the galaxy, the universe; we are ourselves, and we decide what is important to us. Most people only care about a small group of others, fewer than a hundred. Your families, your crew, your squad. My time leading this colony has taught me to extend this ‘family’ to millions. Now, I must learn how to consider everyone, all people, all of humanity, and all AIs to be my people.”
“Why you?” Jessica asked. “What are you going to do?”
“Sera has asked me to lead the Transcend’s military, and I’ve agreed to do it,” Tanis replied. “We’re going to win this war, and figure out a real way to create a lasting peace.”
“So…nothing big, then,” Cargo chuckled.
“Then you’re going to be real glad that we came back when we did,” Jessica said with a smile.
“Stars, any reason would have been good enough,” Tanis said. “But let’s hear it.”
“Well, we kinda have the Orion Guard’s plan for the war.”
FATHOM
STELLAR DATE: 03.28.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2
REGION: Near Roma, New Canaan System
Sera walked down the long corridor on the I2’s command deck, her head swimming with what she had learned from her former crew.
Former crew.
It was readily apparent that the crew of the Sabrina was no longer hers. Deep down she had known that would be the case—it had been eighteen years, after all. But the way they regarded Cargo as their new captain, deferring to him—and to Jessica—drove home the new reality.
Sera internalized a rueful laugh, the sound echoing in her mind. She was so used to sharing public thoughts with Helen that it was still a reflexive habit. But she was alone in her head now. Helen would never chide her, or offer advice, or stay curiously silent at times—even though Sera had always felt her listening.
Helen had been with her for so long—close to the limit of how long an AI and a human should remain together—that many of her behavioral traits were geared toward their shared thinking.
Now Sera doubted she would consider pairing with a new AI. Her mother had lived in her head, and lied to her the entire time. If she couldn’t trust her….
Before long, she arrived at her destination, noting how no one sat behind the desk in front of the office. The ISF was so far beyond short-handed, even Tanis had to do without an assistant. New Canaan may possess the ability to build new ships at breakneck speed, but it far outstripped their ability to raise and train new humans and AIs to crew them.
The door slid open and Sera entered. Noting how the room was a perfect representation of Tani
s. Clean, but not austere; orderly, with bits of chaos here and there, such as the wall covered with random holo projections arrayed in an indecipherable jumble.
In the center was a desk; small, but ornate. Sera recalled seeing it before in the main family room in Tanis and Joe’s cabin. Compact though the desk was, the person behind it was not. Tanis had a way of creating a presence that dwarfed her average height and build. It was in the eyes. They were always focused, always penetrating.
Tanis rose from her chair and walked around the desk, a look of compassion on her face.
“Sera, how are you holding up?”
“Honestly?” Sera asked with a shake of her head. “I really have no idea. I’m trying not to think too much about…well, everything…until all this is over.”
Tanis laughed and placed her hands on Sera’s shoulders. “Sera, you are the President of the Transcend Interstellar Alliance. When this crisis is over, it will be because a new one has risen up in its place.”
Sera shook her head and gave a weak smile. “What the stars am I doing, Tanis? I’m no president. I have no clue what I was thinking. I should pass it over to Finaeus. People would follow him. Maybe he could even re-unite the Transcend and Orion.”
“Do you really think that’s possible?” Tanis asked, her face showing the doubt Sera felt at the proposition as well.
“No,” she sighed. “Probably not. There’s too much bad blood now. A lot more than Airtha divides our people.”
Tanis nodded. “She’s a point we can all agree upon. After what she did on the Hellespont…”
“How are Amanda and Ylonda?” Sera asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. Even though she hadn’t known about Myriad, she was the one who had sent Elena on that ship, which Helen had arranged.
“Do you mean, Amavia?” Tanis asked.
Sera’s brow knitted together. “What is that…a Latin combination of their names?”
“That’s my read on it,” Tanis replied. “She’s figuring her new self out…between you and me, Angela and I are keenly interested in how she manages. We have our own interest in that area.”
Sera was surprised that Tanis was bringing that topic up. In her previous time on the Intrepid, it seemed to be taboo. No one mentioned that Tanis and Angela were a century past the maximum safe integration time.
Yet, everyone could plainly see that they were still two entities. Tanis’s statement now made Sera wonder if that was changing, or if Tanis just worried that it was.
“Really mulling over whether or not you want to ask me about that, aren’t you?” Tanis asked.
“Yes, yes I am. You always cite the Phobos Accords, yet you are probably in violation of them, as is Amavia.” Tanis’s expression darkened and Sera raised eyebrows and hands. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t operate strictly by those accords—stars, you’re the only ones in the galaxy that even purport to anymore. But you don’t. I mean…even Bob probably breaks them, at least as far as I understand their intent. They specifically wanted to avoid ascending any more AI.
Tanis nodded slowly as Angela spoke.
“How do you feel about that?” Sera asked cautiously.
“We are,” Tanis added. “We don’t know to what extent everyone else is prepared to accept it, but we are.”
“Joe? Your girls?” Sera asked.
“We’ve spoken about it from time to time. He laughs it off in his way, but I often wonder…”
Sera nodded. “I can only imagine.”
“Either way,” Tanis said as she leaned against her desk, “that is not a problem for today. Amavia will be fine, I’m sure of it. They’re re-integrating both of their stored memories—since they both lost a lot when Myriad attacked them—but she will come through.”
“But she’ll be someone else, won’t she?” Sera asked. “A new person where before there were two.”
Tanis nodded. “And that’s what I think will be different. Ylonda and Amanda were friends, but they did not previously share neurons. When Angela and I finally join…it may not even be noticeable.”
“To you?”
“This is fascinating,” Tanis said, “but I want to discuss something about the data Sabrina brought back. Their information corroborates Kent’s story of Orion operating a much lower-tech civilization than I had expected.”
Sera lowered herself into a chair and ran a hand through her hair. “I agree, this is not news to us, though we often wondered how stratified their society really is. There is some, but it’s a much broader low-tech base than I had ever expected.”
“Though, even their basic, agrarian societies take advantage of advancements that are not even known in the Inner Stars,” Tanis added.
“It has amazed our analysts that they reached out to the Hegemony of Worlds. They are the antithesis of what Orion purports to stand for.”
Tanis snorted, “They must have held back that little detail.”
“Someone is double-crossing someone else,” Sera rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “So, what do we do Gen—er, Admiral?—you know, I don’t get your ranks. Why did you switch from General to Admiral, anyway?”
Tanis laughed. “It’s kind of a mess that we inherited from the Terran Space Force’s merger. I was in a branch that was historically Marine, so generals were tops there. Space Force had Admirals as their highest rank—which always struck me as odd, since they grew out of the ancient air forces. Either way, it worked out that commanders of trigger pullers were generals, and the folks who bossed starship captains around were admirals—which wasn’t always true since I captained more than one starship back in Sol. Either way, I should have been an admiral back at Kapteyn’s Star, but self-promoting never sat right. Once we had a properly elected government, they changed my commission so it lined up with my actual job.”
“Which was ‘governor’,” Sera smirked. “Has anyone told you that you look like a bit of a dictator?”
Tanis gave Sera a mock scowl. “Well, yeah, ‘admiral’ was just honorary until this little bit of excitement. I guess I’m a very hands-on commander-in-chief.”
“That’s what all the dictators say,” Sera couldn’t resist, and was glad to see Tanis laugh in response.
“You’re one to talk about what’s proper,” Tanis said as she gestured at Sera. “You’re the President of the Transcend and you still don’t wear clothes.”
Sera arched an eyebrow and crossed her legs. “Clothing came about to protect people’s fragile skin and nakedness. I possess neither of those things.”
“Well at least you cover up your lower bits. I guess you’re really no different than Priscilla and Amanda—er, Amavia—except that they’re a bit stiffer, what with Bob’s desire to make them nearly indestructible.
Sera laughed. “Well, at least Priscilla is stiffer. Amanda was a bit loose if you follow the scuttlebutt.”
“Nice deflection,” Tanis smirked. “So, ranks and fashion aside, what the hell are we going to do?”
“Beats me,” Sera chuckled. “I’m just the figurehead. You’re the power behind the Transcend now.”
“Whoa!” Tanis raised her hands while shaking her head. “I did not sign up for that. I’m on board to ensure a secure Transcend, because that makes for a secure New Canaan.”
“You know that that means taking on much of the Inner Stars and Orion, right?” Sera asked.
“I’ll do what I have to,” Tanis replied. “The first thing we need is a lot more intel about what is really going on out there. So far, we’ve only one response—from Admiral Krissy, of all people.”
“I review
ed that as well.” Sera nodded. “She asked after Finaeus, which was nice, those two had been on the outs for some time.”
“I can’t wait to hear that whole story,” Tanis laughed. “I wonder if she has an axe to grind with him.”
“Krissy? Oh most definitely. She probably wants your job too.”
Tanis snorted. “No one should want my job. Either way, I think its best that she stays put. We don’t need more variables here. To be honest, based on the intel we have from Sabrina, no TSF force should redeploy here. No matter how hard they hit us, this is a feint.”
“Twenty thousand hegemony ships is no feint,” Sera replied. “I don’t care if it’s just a fraction of their force. You send fewer ships to sterilize a system!”
“Not this system,” Tanis replied grimly. “But we need to think past this battle, work out our next move and the move after that and what our ultimate goals are. We need to gather more intel, and we need to set up a base of operations.”
“It won’t be here?” Sera asked, surprised that Tanis would suggest another location.
“No,” Tanis shook her head. “I won’t paint a target like that on New Canaan…well, I won’t make the target bigger. We need to set up shop somewhere else. What I need from you, Sera, is not to think like the President of the Transcend, but like the Director of The Hand. Right now, everything is power plays, solidifying alliances.”
“And logistics,” Sera added.
“That too. I need options; strongholds, rally points, defensible systems, all of it. Because once this battle is over, we won’t be sticking around here any longer than we have to.”
Sera nodded and then fell still, her eyes tracing the decorative scrollwork on the desk.
“What is it?” Tanis asked.
“Helen…she left a message for me in my mind. She wants me to go to Airtha,” Sera said quietly.
“What?” Tanis exclaimed. “You can’t be seriously considering it!”
Sera looked up at Tanis and shrugged. “I know I shouldn’t…can’t. But the answers I need to have are there.”
